Chapter Three: The Jungle that is John Adams High
Thank you everyone who commented on chapter two so here we go for round three, ha ha not weird, I am not weir—okay, that's a lie, I am *sigh* but it's fantastic okay be sure to follow and comment of this story and now enjoy chapter three. Like I said before I will take longer to post chapters on this story but I read all your comments and I hope you like this one!
Riley clamps her sweaty hand around my dry one and I resist the tempting urge to swipe my hand away. It feels like Niagara Falls is coming out of her hands, it's insane. Everyone in the classroom is looking at us, the two weird girls standing in the doorway, but it's not all the other people's eyes that is freaking out Riley, it's the eyes of her father in high school looking in our direction that has her freaking out. A man with curly black hair dark brown, almost black, hair steps forward. He's dressed in a blue button up shirt with a red tie and khaki pants.
"Do you both just plan on standing there or would you rather introduce yourself?" the man says, he's obviously a teacher but which one I'm not sure, I look for a name tag on his desk which says Mr. Turner.
"Oh, I would be sooo honored," I reply, voice flooded with sarcasm. I pull my hand from Riley's still dripping hands and take her wrist instead and drag her to the front of the class and plant us side by side, facing everyone's eyes. Riley looks pale like a ghost and she looks down at the tile floor, almost shyly, and refused to look up. Her long brown hair hides her face and so I decide to speak first.
"Hello all you... odd, looking humans, I'm Maya Harke," I look to Mr. Turner. "And Mr. Turner, don't expect me to do well in your class, I'm allergic to homework. This," I motion to Riley at my side. "Is my best friend Riley, who seems to have a beautiful relationship with that floor. Is it talking to you sweetie?"
The class laughs as Riley looks up at everyone and takes a heavy breath. "No, if it did I tell it how annoying you are right now. I'm Riley Matthe—Mathers and I...um, am friends with Maya. T-that's all," she looks to Mr. Turner and mumbles, "can I sit down now, please?"
He nods and we vacate the front of the room and sit beside each other, across the room, far enough away from Cory and Shawn who seem to be talking to one another in hushed whispers. Mr. Turner takes over and begins sleeping and I lean over and whisper to Riley.
"Nice slip up there Riles."
"I'm nervous Maya, we're in the past what is my dad in the present doing, he's probably flipping out."
"We have more important things to worry about then what Mr. Matthews back home is doing. Right now our main concern is not blowing out cover. Anytime you think you might say something you shouldn't we should have a code word."
"A code word?"
"Yeah, something that tells me to cover for you and get you out of the situation. A word like..." I trail off.
"Heart, I could say something like 'whew my heart is really pounding' that could work," she says, grinning like this is the greatest idea in history despite all the other advances and ideas that have be created.
"Fine, whatever."
The bell rings and everyone flees the classroom except Riley and me who wait until everyone is gone then leave. Riley is pushed back and forth because of the sea of people but I finally loose my patience and take Riley's arm and shove past all the older kids. We have out schedules pulled out and the hallways start to clear. Riley pulls away and steps in front of me, walking backwards.
"Riley—" I warn, but it's too late and she bumps into an older kid with black, greased back hair, in a leather jacket and dark jeans. He turns around and glares down at us as he's much taller than us.
"Do you know who I am?" he asks, in a rebel sounding tone. I roll my eyes and scoff, he doesn't scare me, not one little bit. My mom's scare me more than this loser.
Riley spins around and raises her hand, in surrendering manner and begins to blab apologies. "No, I'm so so sorry sir I-I didn't mean to bump into you please forgive me I didn't mean to do it I swear!"
"You know I'll have to teach youze kidz a lesson" he says in a horrible sounding accent. "Frankie, Joey get over here."
"Maybe someone with have to teach you proper grammar..." I say under my breath. Riley looks over at me with wide eyes, clearly she heard what I had said and apparently black leather man over here heard something to as he looks at me, glaring.
"What'd you say?"
"I said that maybe somebody should—" I'm cut off when Riley clamps her hands over my mouth to silence me. I roll my eyes but don't remove her hands.
"You'd better keep those eyes of yours open because I've got me a score to even out here, you see I've got a reputation to keep intact. I'm Harley Keiner, the schools how you say, rebel and I keep youze younger kids in line. Now come on Frankie, Joey our 12:00 is here," with that they turn and walk off down the hall after the nerdy looking boy in big round framed glasses.
Riley releases my mouth and glares at me. "What was that!? Are you trying to get us killed?"
"No, the guy's not that scary, wait, isn't he our janitor?" I ask, looking over at where he just walk to.
Riley stares at me, brown eyes wide. "Maya, this isn't the time to make enemies, we already have Missy back home and we just got here, having enemies is bad, who knows what they're going to do to me."
"Okay, first," I say raising my hand and holding up one finger, "Missy's your enemy, not mine, I just stick up for you. Two you seriously need to chill, and three it could be worse."
"Shouldn't you be more freaked out by this is mean, look around, were... here and all alone."
"It's better than being at home..." I mumbles under my breath, rubbing my hand up and down my bruise hidden arm. Riley doesn't know what it's like to be relived to be far away from her parents. For me it's the best thing to get away from my mother and Riley has no idea why. She can't ever find out, it would be awful and she'd treat me like I'm broken. Like I'm a shatter sheet of glass and it's up to her to pick up the pieces.
Well I'm not, I'm not broken because of my mom's abuse. I'm strong because of it, I can lie like a master because of it, I'm not afraid of other people because of it. Sometimes I tense up when someone touches me but when I see who it is I calm back down. Riley has noticed this of course and I just tell her it's because I like to be prepared for anything.
"Do you need any help finding your next class because I'd be glad to help."
Riley and I turn to the girls voice and see none other than Topanga Matthews with long brown hair, standing about our height with books in hand. She's wears a lavender dress that flows down t her ankles. Once again I see the color drain from Riley's face as she looks at her mother who's our age.
"I"m Topanga Lawrence," she holds out her free hand. Smiling I take it and give it a shake.
"Maya Harke, and this," I point to Riley. "Is Riley Mathers."
"Well, it is excellent to meet you," I hand her the schedule and she looks over it a minute before handing it back. "We have math together, come on I'll show you."
We follow behind Topanga while Riley walks but kind of hangs back trying to avoid Topanga and trust me, it looks odd. Math is boring and I ignore the teacher, yawning occasionally but, as usual, Riley is paying attention. How are we going to get back though? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad my mother isn't around and if she is she's be our age too so yeah but she's not here to hurt me. Riley on the other hand has the good parents who actually want to take care of her and want her around.
I've always been subtly jealous of Riley's relationship with her parents, I know Mr. Matthews hate me, can't say I blame him. Everyone hate me, I'm trouble, always have been, always will be. Simple as that I supposed because unlike Riley I won't be the one with the great career and the parents in the crowd watching me graduate. I'll always have to pretend to be okay for Riley's sake, her innocence is still in tacked as well as being incredibly naive but that's how our relationship has always worked. I'm the screwed up troublemaker who can't make a good decision and Riley is the perfect good girl who'll always be cleaning up after me as long as we remain friends.
The bell rings and Riley and I head to the cafeteria where lots of people stand and sit clustered throughout the room. We sit at an empty table away from Cory and Shawn so Riley doesn't have a panic attack. Riley and I speak quietly, our conversation overlapped by all the others around us.
"So, where exactly are we supposed to sleep, we don't exactly have a place to stay," Riley asks, whispering and glancing around like a dear caught in the headlights. I roll my eyes, rubbing my hands over my face.
"I-I don't know Riles, I don't have all the answers okay? This is as confusing to you as it is to me and right now we'll cross the bridge when we come to it so can we please try to be normal?"
"Maya, you seem pretty happy about not going back home."
"No, it's not that," Lie. "It's just that you act like I know what's going on but that's the thing, I don't."
The doors to the cafeteria fly open and in steps Harley Keiner in his leather jacket and slicked back black hair. I slightly glance over at Cory's table and see the fear plastered on his face.
"Hello Baboon, don't worry, I'm not here for you. Today that is."
I see Cory breathe a sigh of relief but everyone else's anxiety is high but I know who he's for, Riley, and I'm not going to let him so anything to her. I glance over at Riley who is seated at the table biting her already to the nub finger nails even more and I can tell she knows who he's here for as well.
"I'm here for—what was her name again Frankie?"
"Riley, that's what the blonde girl had said," the heavier boy replied to Harley.
In the corner of my gaze I saw Riley rise to her feet. She walks around the table and I follow. We reach the center of the cafeteria where those bullies stand and Riley is shaking in her boots while I'm as calm as ever.
"Ah, there you are, remember how I said I was gonna teach you a lesson, we'll class iz in session."
I roll my eyes really how cheesy is that, using z in 'is' I want to hit him just for saying that but him wanting to harm my best friend Riley really was starting to tick me off. Plus with all my pent up anger at my mother for her years of torture probably isn't helping.
"Well," she says, wincing on eyes ready for the strike. "You probably will get one hit so make it good."
Cory and Shawn look from us to just Riley, confused by what she said as if they'd heard that phrase before. Harley stepped forward but he didn't raise his fist. I step forward and step in front of Riley who looks at me in shock.
"You'll have to go through me first Keiner, before I ever let you lay a hand on Riley."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah," I say, a cold edge taking over my voice. "it is."